About the OpenURL router

Section Contents

What is the OpenURL Router?

The OpenURL Router connects an OpenURL in an online service with the OpenURL resolver at the user's institution. Thus, it:

helps institutions with OpenURL resolvers to establish OpenURL links from a wider range of online services.

enables providers of OpenURL-aware services to link to the appropriate OpenURL Resolver for each of their end users.

extends the range of services in which OpenURL links can usefully be deployed.

reduces an institution's workload when it changes its OpenURL resolver.

How does the OpenURL Router work?

The OpenURL Router provides a central registry of institutions' OpenURL resolvers. An institution registers details of its resolver at openurl.ac.uk thus making the information available to online service providers (OSPs). OSPs can use that information to provide users from a registered institution with links that are resolved by the correct institution's OpenURL resolver.

An institution can indicate any changes in its OpenURL resolver by revising its entry in the registry – thus making those changes known to all of the OSPs using the registry. The OpenURL Router is useful to institutions also with regard to online services that do not use the Registry. The institution may configure links to those services manually but, again, this work is required only once – when changes are made to the Institution's OpenURL Resolver and the OpenURL Router implements those for all information related to that Resolver.